Thursday Bytes – ACC Takes Center Stage

'07 Football82

ACC

* If you haven’t been coming here daily and keeping up with the site, definitely take some time to peruse the items that we have on the front page right now. We’ve been working very hard to keep our content dynamic and feel like there are a lot of good items out there for your review and comment.

* Boston College takes on Virginia Tech tonight in a big game for the ACC. I’ve gotten so damn tired of the BC fans unwillingness to support their conference bretheren – see any pregame entry from EagleinAtlanta who has supported UCF, Wofford and ECU over the ACC’s Wolfpack – that I don’t care how good it is for the ACC…GO HOKIES.

* I know that this will sound backwards…but think through what I am getting ready to say – I don’t think that the ACC should necessarily WANT Boston College to go undefeated this year. Here is why — IF Ohio State remains undefeated and LSU (and maybe Oklahoma) end the season with only one loss, there is a STRONG possibility that the Tigers (or the Sooners) could jump an undefeated Boston College in the polls and play for a national championship. (Of course, BC fans will blame this on Tom O’Brien…when we all know that it is probably Herb Sendek’s fault). In this scenario, the ACC will be significantly embarassed and have egg all over our faces. Do we really WANT our ‘best’ team to demoted on a national scale in such an unceremonious manner?

* I simply can’t get over the irony that of the situation tonight where nobody from New England gives two shits about the ‘big game’ because the Red Sox are in the World Series. (And, don’t forget those Patriots!) Isn’t this EXACTLY WHY Coach O’Brien decided to leave despite having a team stocked with 5th year seniors and a Heisman candidate, quarterback?

* As much as I want our fellow-technical school (who is pretty-much-Southern) to beat the Eagles tonight, I’m not sure that they can do it. The Hokies offense is atrocious, primarily due to weakness at the quarterback position. (Sound familiar?) One has to wonder how far this team can go in light of the deficiency. How many games can your defense and special teams win for you? Especially when playing an offense as strong as Boston College’s?

* I’m not a huge fan of the Charlotte Observer’s Ken Tysiac, but he has a solid “Inside the ACC” article in today’s paper that includes the following:

FLORIDA STATE FLAGS. It won’t surprise N.C. State fans. With Chuck Amato coaching in Tallahassee, Florida State leads the ACC in penalty yardage with 77.9 yards per game.

* Speaking of Florida State, this is ludicrous. Could you imagine how big of a story that our AD would have made this incident had it happened in Raleigh? Would have been GREAT for attracting a new coach! ESPN’s Gameday will have a feature on the evolution of the Florida State program this weekend if you are interested.

* Speaking of spanning the ACC, here’s another quick hitter that is pretty good.

* The “Rasta Smurfs” are at it again. Over the last five years, has ANY ACC program had the problems and issues with the weed that Carolina has experienced? I’d love to see a hard-hitting analysis of all of the marijuana and weapons charges that have piled up in Chapel Hill this decade. Why don’t we hear about lack of institutional control when a problem like this is so prevelant? Heck…and this is with Rasheed Wallace and Jeff McInnis never officially getting busted!

* Virginia is RIPE for the picking this weekend in Raleigh. If NC State had a healthier and stronger offensive line then I would be picking the Wolfpack in an upset. (Or, at least to cover the spread).

* State definitely played our best game of the season on Saturday, but I fear too many people ignored the magnitude of the weakness of the East Carolina offensive and defensive lines that helped us immensely. Virginia is the complete opposite. The Cavs have a great OLine and Chris Long will be matched up on a freshman. In light of how bad our line has been vs ACC-level competition, Daniel Evans’ height concerns me. One knocked down ball at the line of scrimmage or a tipped ball for an interception could easily be the difference in this game.

* On the positive side, it isn’t far-fetched to believe that Tom O’Brien sincerely wanted to succeed George Welsh in Charlottesville. And, as this analysis indicates, you should beware a “motivated TOB”.

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'07 Football

82 Responses to Thursday Bytes – ACC Takes Center Stage

  1. RochesterRedWolf 10/25/2007 at 11:18 PM #

    that pooch punt was brilliant by VT, don’t know why more coaches don’t try it.

  2. choppack1 10/25/2007 at 11:30 PM #

    Wow. Onside kick recovered by BC.

    BC has plenty of time to go for 6 here.

  3. RochesterRedWolf 10/25/2007 at 11:39 PM #

    R I D I C U L O U S! What a QB

  4. noah 10/25/2007 at 11:40 PM #

    They’re going to be #1 once Penn State beats Ohio State.

  5. noah 10/25/2007 at 11:41 PM #

    And what the hell is wrong with the TV folks? No one wants to watch Ryan throw up. Jeez.

  6. RochesterRedWolf 10/25/2007 at 11:48 PM #

    yeah, that was nasty….those last two drives were all Matty Ryan…i bet TOB feels jacked for that team.

    When that guy bobbled the onside kick, i thought of the scene in “The Waterboy” where the kicker is looking down the line and he goes “ok, whose my bitch, whose my bitch.” and they show that guy bout to wet himself.

  7. ncsugavin 10/26/2007 at 12:00 AM #

    @ noah
    agreed nor does anyone want to see him dry-heave

  8. choppack1 10/26/2007 at 12:00 AM #

    Ryan looked like a totally different player those last 2 drives.

    They went shotgun and no-huddle. Suddenly, VA Tech couldn’t generate pressure and Ryan – after looking confused and shellshocked most of the game – looked like an all-pro.

    Those are the kind of games that win you the Heisman – no one will remember how badly he looked before. But BC just took a huge step towards an undefeated regular season.

    If I’m a VaTech fan, I look back at the 3 and 8 before the FG/Punt as where you lost the game. There was right around 4 minutes left – run the ball, at the very least, you make BC use it’s 1 of it’s 2 TOs. – and quite possibly, you make a first down – or put yourself in a better position to go for it on 4th down or in better position for a FG.

  9. packgrad2000 10/26/2007 at 12:01 AM #

    Until now I wasn’t all that impressed with Ryan. But after those last 4 minutes…that was impressive. I’m guessing the VT fans walking out of the stadium right now feel like I did walking out of Ericson stadium in Charlotte in 99 (or 98?) when Chris Coleman was like 6 inches short of the goal line…

  10. noah 10/26/2007 at 12:06 AM #

    They don’t feel anything like that. They lost to the #2 team in the country and the team that’s probably going to win the ACC title. We lost to a sorry-ass piece of crap UNC team that had a third-string running back at QB.

    They feel like we did in 1979 when Penn State beat us 9-7.

  11. Mr O 10/26/2007 at 8:54 AM #

    Does anyone else think that the onside kick cheapens football? Without the lucky bounce on the onsides kick, Ryan wouldn’t have gotten the second chance to score and nobody would be talking about him or BC. BC had no business winning the game.

  12. noah 10/26/2007 at 9:21 AM #

    That’s sports.

  13. packgrad2000 10/26/2007 at 9:37 AM #

    Noah – yes but I’m sure they’re having that, “I can’t believe we just lost that game – we should have had it” that I know I felt against UNC in MOC’s last game.

  14. RickJ 10/26/2007 at 9:42 AM #

    Mr. O – I am OK with having the onside kick in football. It is really a pretty low percentage play but does give the trailing team some hope.

    The end of last night’s game made me think of your post yesterday regarding the “playing the game to win” nonsense that announcers sometimes spiel. I thought BC should have kicked deep and played for a 3 and out or turnover. I particularly liked this strategy because of the field conditions and the trouble VaTech was having at the center position. BC took the aggressive route and it paid off in this case. I thought BC was also pretty aggressive in throwing for the TD on 3rd & 20. I would have been tempted to have been conservative and play for the field goal and overtime. I think the fact that their field goal kicker isn’t very good may have affected his thinking.

    On the other hand, I didn’t think Virginia Tech was conservative enough with about 6 minutes to go and the game completely in control. As Choppack1 pointed out they threw and incompletion on a 3rd and 8 that stopped the clock. They threw another incompletion before that one. Beamer was trying to put the game away by going up 3 scores – definitely playing to win but it didn’t work out in this case.

  15. joe 10/26/2007 at 9:55 AM #

    Most onside kicks do not work but it does add excitement to the end of a game when it does work.

  16. noah 10/26/2007 at 9:55 AM #

    The onsides kick is not a rule, it’s a play that is the outcome of a rule. If you change that, you have to change about a thousand other things that happen when someone scores. You turn kickoffs into punt coverage. You’d just line everyone up 10 yards beyond the kicking tee and you’d see 40 yard returns instead of 20 yard returns because you wouldn’t have to space out your return team in order to defend pooch kicks.

    Turning to truly important games that were played last night, did anyone catch the N&O claiming that Matt Holiday was a former NC State player? I don’t know who they were thinking of, but Holiday is from Oklahoma and signed with the Rockies out of high school.

  17. SuperStuff 10/26/2007 at 9:58 AM #

    I can’t beleive that VT offense couldn’t generate one more score when that defense was killing BC. BC earned that win in the end.

  18. Mr O 10/26/2007 at 10:15 AM #

    RickJ: I thought about it as well. That is one of losses that just eats at you. We have had so many of those over the last 3-4 years(of course now we tend to just get blown out).

    As far as the onsides kick, the whole concept is bogus IMO. Why in that one situation do you get a “free ball” type of situation that is essentially complete luck. It is the one play in football when no matter how well you execute the play, the success of it depends on a lucky bounce. What other play in football do you base your execution on luck?

    Their were two other plays that killed VPI as well. The personal foul on the punt block. BC didn’t score on that drive, but it hurt VPI’s field positions when the got the ball back. BC was punting from their own five yard line, so even with a 45 yard kick which is what the punter was averaging, BC was going to get the ball at midfield. BC got a first down after the penalty and after a 30 yard punt, VPI got the ball on their own 33 yard line. The drove to BC’s 36 yard line. Without the personal foul on the punt, VPI would be inside the 20 yard line in definite FG range and threatening for a TD. On 3rd and 2, they ran the ball to the right side figuring to get the 1st down or at least put them in position to go for it on 4th down. Instead, they run it for a loss of three yards to make it 4th and 5 and then they punt the ball in the end zone for a touchback.

    You and Choppack1 are right that VPI threw it twice on 3rd down plays on their last two possessions right before punting. If they play conservative and run the ball, then BC probably only has time to kick the FG.

    Still, even with all of that VPI deserved to win and only lost because BC got the ball twice in a row.

    The other was on 3rd and about 3 ro 4 yards in the 4th quarter. VPI ran the ball and lost yardage on the play to make

  19. WolfmanDave 10/26/2007 at 10:16 AM #

    Anyone who doesn’t like the onsides kick wasn’t at our game versus Marshall in 90 or 91.

  20. RickJ 10/26/2007 at 10:20 AM #

    Noah – You are correct about Matt Holiday. His dad, Tom Holiday is currently an assistant baseball coach at State.

  21. Mr O 10/26/2007 at 10:21 AM #

    Noah: Point taken on onsides kicks. I guess my biggest issue was that BC won a game that they really didn’t deserve to win by getting an incredibly lucky break. If you changed it from 10 to 15 yards, then the success of onsides kicks would go down significantly. There is obviously a penalty for not recovering the onsides kick(good field position for the other team), so you guys are right that it is low percentage play to begin with.

  22. Mr O 10/26/2007 at 10:21 AM #

    wolfmandave: I wasn’t at that game.

  23. joe 10/26/2007 at 10:27 AM #

    Teams win games on lucky breaks all the time. Sometimes it is because of a late fumble or maybe a penalty late in the game or a bad call by a ref. In a close game the team that gets a break late in the game might very well win.

  24. noah 10/26/2007 at 10:35 AM #

    “I guess my biggest issue was that BC won a game that they really didn’t deserve to win by getting an incredibly lucky break.”

    In close games, you can almost always point to a couple of critical moments where one team got lucky. Should UNC hand back the National Title for 1982 and 1993 for an errant pass and a stupid timeout (and Webber walked before that, it just wasn’t called)?

    We shouldn’t have beaten Marshall in 1991. We shouldn’t have beaten South Carolina in 1986. Cal shouldn’t have beaten Stanford in 1982. Why wasn’t Cal flagged for their band running out on the field? The Browns should have gone to the Super Bowl TWICE in the 80s instead of the (horribly mediocre) Denver Broncos.

    And on and on and on. It’s why you play the game and why sports are equally exhilarating and horribly frustrating.

    In 1946, the Red Sox were better than the Cardinals. But a combination of Ted Williams getting beaned in a stupid exhibition game and Johnny Pesky holding on to the ball too long on Enos Slaughter’s dash for home gave the Cardinals the title.

    In 1912, the Red Sox won the World Series when the NY Giants second baseman dropped a pop-up in the ninth inning of the seventh game.

    Buckner.

    Akeem Olajuwan shouldn’t have wandered away from the basket, he should have been blocking out. And Houston should have hit their free throws down the stretch. And they should have been pressing us all day.

  25. noah 10/26/2007 at 10:36 AM #

    Rick – I didn’t realize that. It must have been what they were talking about.

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